Worship

I went to a new church today with some friends from work. It is called Imago Dei and meets in a high school in Northeast Portland.

It reminded me of my church back in Prosser - PCC - because of the worship and the way the pastor delivered his sermon. His sermon really struck me this week and made me think about why I do some of the things I do. What is the motivation of my heart?

The sermon was based off of Genesis 2:7 - "the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." I won't try to explain the entire sermon to you because I would get it wrong and you would be reading all day but one of the major points was that God has breathed life into each one of us. If he did not do that, we would all be lifeless and not able to do anything.

He went on to expound on that fact and explain that everything we do should be for the glory of God because he gave us our breath. To often I, and probably many people, think that how we worship God is by going to a church service, singing some songs, listening to a sermon and then repeating it the next week. But worship can be so much more - it should be resonating throughout all of the parts of our lives.

The other point that really hit me was the fact that worship is a response to what God has done. I have known this in the back of my mind, in my head really, but for the past few months have not felt it in my heart. I was doing "religious" things - praying, reading my Bible, going to church to try and draw closer to God, to try and feel like He was closer and to try and make Him come closer to me. But really, He is close all of the time and it is me that draws away when I start to think that I have to DO things to get to Him and to please Him. I have been saved by grace, not works, and I should do these things out of a desire to know God better and develop intimacy with Him.

All in all, it was a good reminder for my heart and a chance to once again come face to face with God's love, mercy, grace, and acceptance.

Race for the Cure

Last Sunday the 17th was the annual Race for the Cure here in Portland. I participated in the 5K walk with my Aunt Emma, her friends Suzanne & Karen, and her friend Carmen who is a breast cancer survivor and spent the day at the survivor tent.
We walked through the streets of downtown Portland surrounded by people of all ages who showed up to support finding a cure for breast cancer. Even the dogs were walking in support!
It was a pretty incredible experience walking down Broadway and looking in front of and behind me looking at a sea of people. Those who were survivors wore pink shirts and yet so many more people had pictures of loved ones who battled this disease and lost. The fact that almost 50,000 people participated in this activity was almost unbelievable seeing as how Prosser - my hometown - is only about 5,000 in population. Can you imagine the town of Prosser times 10! Wow!
Here are a few pictures of our walk. In the group picture it is: Emma, Suzanna, Carmen, Karen, and Carla. We certainly had a fun time that day and I hope this isn't the last Race for the Cure I participate in.

My First Meme

Three nicknames— Carlita, Car, Carlotta (car-low-ta)

Three people that make me laugh— my roommate Tiffany, Anne Jaca, Chris Friberg

Three things that I love— Jesus, the beach, traveling to new places

Three things I hate— second-hand smoke, people who don't listen/talk over you, road construction in the city

Three things I don't understand—computers, where all these cars on the road come from every day, why plane flights are so darn expensive when you're not even going that far

Three things on my floor— a box of 500 clean seal envelopes, dust, a neck wrap

Three things I am doing right now— looking up addresses for prayer letters, watching Jay Leno, wishing that winter was not coming so fast

Three things I can do— hang pictures, take pictures, make fun dinners with new recipies

Three ways to describe my personality— shy but outgoing, silly but serious, obsessive compulsive tendencies (I like organization and cleanlines!!)

Three favorite foods— anything with pasta and cheese together, fresh fruit, tacos and spanish rice made at home by my mom

Three foods I do not like— onions, mushrooms, cilantro

Three beverages I drink regularly— H2O, Milk, Coffee

Three shows I watch— my roommate and I are starting our new schedule next week:
Tuesday-Gilmore Girls
Wednesday-One Tree Hill
Thursday - Grey's Anatomy
We shall see how long it lasts....................

I will tag Vessel of Light next!

100%!!!

I finally reached 100% in my support raising. Many of you already know but I wanted to share some of the details.

Last week, I found out that I was still needing 100 dollars in monthly support in order to be at 100%. I was already coming into the office and attending some meetings but I was not getting paid or signed up for benefits because I still needed support.

So I spent the remainder of the week trying to get ahold of people that I had not heard from yet and asking monthly supporters to see if they could increase.

Well Saturday I got a fun phone call. My friend Kristen, who I met in Lake Tahoe, is going on staff with Campus Crusade and is raising her support to go to the University of Oregon. She called me up and said she wanted to give me her tithe out of the donations she received for the month of August. She received $5,000 in donations so that made her gift $500!!! I was blown away by that gift because it was $40 in monthly support that I could now count. I praised God and even cried a little when I got off the phone because of the huge blessing it was.

That added with some generous monthly supporters who could increase their giving led to my support coming in more abundantly than I even needed! Praise the Lord! :)

This week I will start sitting down with Kelly, who was the hotel liason in the past, to sort of work out a job description for me and start getting in touch with the conference center and hotel for the big Winter Conference in December. I am so excited to see what is in store and also a little nervous as well because this such an important job. I feel like the people here have such high expectations for me, sometimes I am not sure I will be able to fill the shoes of those who have been here in the past.

But God is faithful as I have seen and I should never doubt his strength for me.

New Apartment Pictures!

Finally! Here are pictures of my new apartment in Portland. The living room, my bedroom, and the dining room which is right off the living room. I am still settling in a little. I brought some more back with me from home this past weekend and I feel like I want to organize and clean up more but right now fininshing support is on the forefront of things.
Please continue to pray for my support. I am going to sit down and calculate how much I have tonight and take it to the Intern Coordinator tomorrow. I know I am in the 90 percent range but I'm not sure what they'll tell me if I am not at 100% yet. I am running out of people to talk to and so that is something else to be praying for. Or let me know if you have any names!!
This blog is kind of fun, more posts to come in the future as I start with Campus Crusade here in Portland.